Hey y'all, I'm Danielle - the crazy behind this blog, where I share my creative life adventures as I survive life as a momma of 5 superheroes & wife to my best friend & fellow nerd. Life doesn't have to be perfect to be GREAT! You can reach me at danielle (at) busymomshelper.com - ABOUT -

We have about 2 weeks left in the school year, then it’s summer vacation. I haven’t decided yet if I’m excited to have my kids around more, or terrified. Probably a bit of both, if I’m honest! Luckily it’s easier to help them stay in touch with their friends with these Summer Break Keep in Touch Printables for School Kids. These will make it super simple to stay in touch to plan playdates and such during their time out of school.

Since I don’t want them giving our phone number and email out to just random people, I’ll of course be helping them hand these to their school friends. Another option is to give blank ones to your friends so they can ask their mom/dad to fill in their info so YOU can call/email to set up a playdate.

I did four different designs because, as you know, kids can be really picky as to what they do or don’t like! Or maybe they want to give a different design depending on the friend. Whichever, you can just download and print whichever ones you want – they do 4 to a page, and our roughly 4.25 inches in size if you print them on 8.5×11 paper. Not exactly, but whatever.

Here’s more summer time fun!

Kids love jokes and puns. These printable fruity valentines are the perfect silly cards to send to school with your child. Add them to a package of fruit snacks or fruit-flavored candy for an easy treat to hand out to the whole class.

My nine-year-old son cannot resist a good joke. He has read every joke book in the library and never resists the opportunity to sneak a pun into conversations.

When I was afraid these were too cheesy, or maybe too mushy to hand out to friends, I asked for his opinion. After I read each card to him, he laughed out loud. I think we have a winner here.

I made these silly printables with a class Valentine’s Day party in mind, but they would also be cute to sneak into lunch boxes year-round.

The valentines include six designs on a single page and there are two options. First, I made them using just the outlines of the fruit. They’re easy on your ink cartridge and would be a fun coloring activity for younger kids.

The second style is colored in lightly. They still don’t use much ink, but they look a bit more finished if you’re in a hurry or have a preteen who’s too cool to color.

These printable fruity valentines make it easy to send a thoughtful and clever treat for the whole class. Start by printing and cutting out a few pages. Staple each one to a package of fruit snacks and you’re done.

These would also be good with fruit-flavored candy, like Starburst, Lifesavers, or Runts.

Send your little Star Wars fan off to school with a surprise. These printable Star Wars lunch box notes are perfect for bringing a smile to your child’s face in the middle of the day.

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My family moved over the summer, which means my kids are starting at a new school this year. In fact, they are starting at two new schools because my oldest is starting middle school and my youngest is still in elementary.

They are both always a bit nervous on the first day, and this year I think it will be even truer. There is so much excitement – new classrooms, new teachers, and new classmates.

To be honest, I’m probably as nervous about the first day as they are. It’s my job as mom to worry about them though, right?

As a fun reminder that I’m thinking of them, I always tuck a little note in their lunches. I’ve made and printed dozens, so they never know what to expect.

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Who’s ready for another Craft Lightning post? I totally am – I love joining in this fun week every month! This time around we’re acknowledging the amazing teachers with gift ideas. There’s so many great ideas, so I thought I’d share some adorable Free Printable Teacher Gift Tags you can use on anything!

It’s amazing how hard teacher’s work during the year. I use to volunteer/sub at an elementary school and couldn’t believe the hours and care put into their students’ education! Once I subbed for the computer teacher a whole month straight, and by the end I had an even higher appreciation for all of them. As much as I love kids and teaching, I couldn’t do it long-term!

I wanted these tags to be simple, yet fun. Of course I had to incorporate a chalkboard-type background because, duh, school!

I’ll even share what we did for our fun gift – a Classroom Emergency Kit! Seriously, so many options of what you can include in here 🙂

This particular basket is going to Wonder Woman’s 3rd grade teacher. She’s always saying how they run out of these basic things in their classroom….now she’ll have a little stash! I HAD to include the fun chocolate note pad that says “I would give up Chocolate but I am not a Quitter” 🙂 Then toss in a gift card, because every teacher deserves a little treat for themselves!

Head over to see the other amazing Teacher Gift Ideas for Craft Lightning!

With 4 little kiddos, we get a LOT of cute little art projects piling up. It seems to just grow up off the counters, out of the walls, and stuffed in bedrooms. It’s everywhere! In the past, I’ve been terrible at displaying it in an organized (and even semi-attractive) manner, but no more since I did this Quick & Organized Kids Art Wall!

Yes, we’ve dealt with our dining room wall being that cluttered, random, totally-overrun mess for a year now! I know it’s been that long, since we moved in just over a year ago! Between the preschool projects and at-home art fun, my kiddos just have too many ‘masterpieces’ they want to display. With my new Organized Kid’s Art Wall, they can each pick their 3 favorites and they’re nicely up on our mini-gallery wall!

Supplies Needed

Wood board OR thick foam board (I used foam boards, since I had some on-hand)

Paint of choice

Vinyl lettering of choice

Clothespins

Nails or other way of attaching to the wall

Glue (I used hot glue)

Directions

Paint your boards the desired color.

Add your vinyl lettering. I used my trusty Silhouette Cameo and white vinyl, and even had my kids pick out their own fonts when I was designing them! I did use my kid’s actual names….but I blotted them out in these pics and put their Superhero names (code-names), since I don’t openly share their names on here.

Anyone else here a terrible procrastinator? I TOTALLY am! An example would be today’s post, which I actually meant to share with you clear back in June, yet here it is August and I’m finally getting around to it. Plus, it was really on the calendar for earlier this week, but that didn’t happen either. Well, since it’s better late than never…..I’m finally sharing this tutorial on how to Make Your Own Laptop for Kids!

I made these for our kiddos for our road trip to Grandma’s this summer, and surprised them with them when they started getting bored during the drive. They LOVED having their own Superhero laptops so they could ‘work’ or play ‘Angry Birds’ (that’s what they pretended they were doing….aren’t we just fantastic examples for our kids)! I did make a cute generic one, also, just because I fell in love with the patterned felt!

Supplies Needed

2 large flat pieces of felt, for the ‘laptop case’ part

2 plain colored pieces of felt, for the ‘screen’ and under the ‘keyboard’

1 white piece of felt, for the ‘keys’ and ‘buttons’

Scrap felt for the ‘mouse’

Piece of ribbon for the ‘mouse’

Stuffing, for ‘mouse’

A few small scraps of felt

Thread and needle for hand-sewing AND/OR hot glue/gun

Puffy paint (or really nice felt marker) for writing on keys

Scrap pieces of card stock or poster board, thick

Scissors

An imagination!

Here’s kind of the proportions you’ll want your pieces to be:

Directions

Place your 2 main pieces together with the pretty sides out. Cut your card stock/poster board so two pieces fits in between, leaving space on the edges and the middle. I glued mine it to secure them in place.

Glue or sew around the edges of the big pieces, then along the ‘middle’ of the laptop, where it will fold.

Cut out your ‘screen’ and sew/glue it to the TOP layer of the laptop.

Take your few small scraps of felt and cut them into thin, long strips. These will be used on the two sides, inside the laptop, to hold the screen up when you open it. Sew/glue each strip a bit to the top flat of the laptop, then stretch it to the bottom (so there’s a gap….) Just hold it like you would want it open, with the screen being held up, and you’ll know how far down on the bottom piece to sew/glue it.

Cut your mouse felt into a long rectangle shape, then fold it over and sew/glue the sides together. Stuff it with batting or random felt scraps. Put your ribbon INTO the mouse, then sew/glue the top closed.

Glue the other end of the ‘mouse’ ribbon under where your keyboard will be….that way it stays nicely in place. You can sew/glue two little buttons onto your mouse, if you’d like.

Glue your flat plain piece of fabric to the bottom of the laptop, where you want your keyboard, covering that end of the mouse ribbon (cord?).

Cut your white felt into little pieces for your keys. Mine were roughly 3/4″ squared to fit on the felt size I had. Use puffy paint or a felt marker to write the letters, numbers and/or symbols you want on your keys. Then glue them onto the plain keyboard piece.

If you want to get really creative and fun, you can cut out felt shapes to decorate the outside of the ‘laptop’, like I did with my kids’ Superhero ones!

What’s nice about these is they can easily close up when they’re not in use!

My kids have so much fun with these, and it really lets their imaginations go wild. Even after the trip, they still like to pull them out for some ‘work’ or playing!

So grab some cute felt and whip one up that shows your kids’ fun personality! See what type of things they come up with to ‘do’ on this!

Back to school is upon us, and although part of me is screaming ‘Yes, Yes, Yes!’ the other part of me is just like ‘No, No, No!’ I love my kiddos like crazy, but I really enjoy school time because a: They’re happier with friends, learning, and a schedule and b: I get a bit to myself to get things done, so I can focus on them when they’re home. That being said, a few things about them being back in school drive me nuts, one of which being the EARLY mornings and trying to squeeze in a good, healthy breakfast! To help save us all what little sanity we may have left, I’ve made a list of 100+ Breakfast Ideas for the School Year!

I’ll admit, I tend to give my kids cereal, poptarts and frozen waffles (I do heat them up!) quite often. It’s just too hard coming up with new ideas that are budget-friendly, mostly-healthy, and don’t take forever! This year I’m going to be prepared with this wonderful list of Breakfast Ideas…..so let’s see how much more pleasant we can make the morning rush, shall we?

These S’more Pancakes from Spoonful of Flavor look so yummy, I may enjoy a few (or more!) myself!